With the first few working days of 2024 under your belt how do you feel?
Is 2024 all set to be your best year yet or do you have career frustrations?
This month: Be conscious in your career choices
It’s a subject that I have written about before, making conscious career choices, as it never goes away. It is all to easy to go with the flow, take the path of least resistance and generally keep everyone around you happy.
However, this can lead to a number of problems. Firstly, you might find your self down a path that you never even intended to take. You volunteer, or are volunteered, for a type of work/ client and before you know it you are the office ’expert’ on an area not of your choosing.
Secondly, you might find yourself in a state of ‘rust out’, the opposite to burn out. You can do your job standing on your head, with one arm behind your back, you are on auto pilot and you are not being challenged on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.
In both cases you need to take action. Leaving an unsatisfactory situation to linger will make it worse. Your options, and your mindset will become more entrenched and that might turn to frustration or even anger at colleagues or yourself for not being where you want to be.
Talk to those around you, your line manager, HR. What can be done to change your situation and get your work life back on track for you?
Often some small adjustments can make a big difference.
· Want a certain work type?
Do some focused BD/ marketing work in that area.
· Need a new challenge?
Take over supervision of a colleague or take responsibility for a new project.
· Looking for more work or higher level work?
Make it your mission to keep in touch with the top clients or referrers from the last 12 months to ensure you are top of mind when they need you again, or so you can get the pick of the work coming through.
· In a rut?
Get out of your comfort zone, volunteer for a talk or a project that scares you just a little bit and make it your 2024 mission to shine in a new skill.
Remember that businesses are making choices all the time, they need to adapt and change to market conditions and that makes good business sense to them. If you have discussions and the business needs and your own needs just don’t align then it’s time to make some conscious choices of your own. Where do you want to be? What elements are missing that need to be filled?
